Get Organized!

PLAY AUDIOMellody Hobson talks about organizing in this week’s “Money Mondays” segment.

This morning I have a cautionary tale for you. Last week, a woman in Queens threw away her life savings. She literally threw it away in a rusted out old refrigerator.

She didn’t remember she’d stashed her cash in there until later that night. When she returned to the dump in a panic the next day, she and the crew couldn’t find the old Frigidaire and she left in despair. Fifteen minutes later, a worker clocked in who had a vague recollection about where it was and they found the old fridge sandwiched between two cars. Inside were two black plastic bags with stacks of cash.

But the woman hadn’t left her name or any contact information! This is the truly unbelievable part: The story made the news and she was reunited with her savings.

And the moral of this story?

Don’t even get me started on keeping your savings in the fridge. Furniture and appliances are NOT a safe place for cash, and they don’t return a penny in interest. But what I want to talk about today is how people are throwing their money away—both literally and figuratively—because they’re not organized.

I know it sounds a little hints-from-Heloise-y, but like your mother told you, it pays to get organized. Just like a business takes inventory, you need to know what you own to better use what you have and thereby cut wasteful spending.

Saving isn’t always about clipping coupons. It’s putting what you already own to good use, and that goes from t-shirts to your cable bill. Instead of just watching your dimes, dig them out of the couch–and I promise you, in one way or another, we all have money in our homes that we’re wasting.

Plus, disorganization causes undue stress. What’s interesting is that the IBD/TIPP Financial Related Stress Index actually fell 1.3 points in the latest month to 57.1. That’s the lowest level of “financial stress” people feel going back to the recession’s start in December 2007. But among those making less than $30,000 a year, last month’s stress reading jumped 3.3 points to 64.3, an eight-month high. It makes sense that lower earners are more cash-strapped and more likely to suffer from financial stress, but the best way to lessen that stress is to take back a sense of control. That starts with a thorough housecleaning.